Crytek Unveils 'The Climb', An OculusVR Exclusive

The Oculus Rift's consumer model is perhaps the most eagerly awaited piece of hardware for 2016, and plenty of interested parties are betting that VR in general is really going to take off with its release. It's perhaps no surprise therefore to see Crytek, creators of the Crysis series and experts in producing some of the most gorgeous graphics for games, enter the arena with an exclusive on the most widely known platform.

The Climb is Crytek's first retail 'VR Experience', and the premise is simple: you're a climber, and you need to navigate your way up a lovingly rendered cliff quickly and safely. You can see the general gist of the experience below, but the real selling point is the feeling of 'presence' (or immersion if you prefer) a VR headset brings. Plus, given it's a Crytek title, you can be reasonably sure that the world itself will look stunning.

At present The Climb is very much a work-in-progress, with relatively few media outlets having had a hands-on (you can see CNET's gameplay of the experience here). In addition to the Rift Headset the primary peripheral interface is a wireless XBOX controller, but as skeletal tracking and other input methods improve it's not impossible to imagine a more intuitive system in the future.

More generally, the Oculus-exclusive nature of this new title continues to raise some questions. Harmonix revealed Rock Band VR a couple of weeks ago as another Oculus exclusive, primarily due to the game being bankrolled by the Facebook-owned outfit. Despite wider industry moves towards making VR a relatively open platform, both through OSVR and OpenVR, Oculus themselves are focussed on ensuring that launch and early release titles are as seamless an experience as possible on their own hardware; openness and platform standardisation is a secondary concern. This in tern may result in a situation where VR gaming looks like the console market, locking users out if they choose the 'wrong' hardware.